Chapter 8

Chapter 8

“What is this…!” Elisha, who sat right next to Ansel, was startled and looked around. But she was the only one that was surprised.

The servant, who poured the juice, apologized as he bowed his head to Ansel. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

Watching the situation, Christian stood up and slapped the servant’s face. “I’m sure I told you to bring it carefully. You are such a careless bastard.”

Christian pushed the servant away and bent over to Ansel to check his condition. At first glance, he seemed like a person who was genuinely worried. “Sorry, sorry. He’s a little bit shaky. Oh, I’m sorry, what should I do?”

But immediately after that, the sound of a crazed laugh escaped from Christian’s mouth, who seemed to be worried about Ansel just now. “Pffft. But you look better with purple hair. How about washing your hair with grape juice in the future?”

“Ahahahaha!”

At Christian’s words, Princess Michaela burst into laughter. Then the other children began to laugh awkwardly. There were many children who forced their laugh and reluctantly smiled even though it was not funny. The only ones who didn’t laugh were Elisha, Richard, and Ansel.

‘You’re not crazy, are you?’ Elisha, who was watching the situation as if she was dumbfounded, pulled out a handkerchief from her pocket and handed it to Ansel. “Here, wipe it with this.”

Ansel looked at Elisha with surprise. He was not the only one who was surprised by Elisha’s kindness. Christian, too, was staring at Elisha with a stunned look. Elisha wiped Ansel’s face since he didn’t receive her handkerchief.

Then Christian’s face became subtly distorted. But soon he burst into laughter. “The Duchess has a kind heart.” Christian instructed the servant to bring the grape juice bottle and an empty glass.

“I’ll pour a drink for the Duchess.” At that moment, Christian moved stealthily and tried to pour the grape juice over Elisha’s head.

“Kyaa.”

Suddenly, a strong wind blew and protected Elisha. The wind was strong enough to even make a person stumble. Christian, reeled by the wind, spilled the grape juice on his own clothes. He tried to shake it off, but his clothes had turned purple.

“You crazy!” Christian picked up a glass of grape juice and threw it at Richard.

And Richard avoided it and he caught Elisha’s feather hat to prevent it from flying away.

“You did it, didn’t you?”

Richard looked at Christian indifferently, and he didn’t reply.

At this rate, Christian would likely hit Richard. Christian, who was hot-tempered, used to beat his servants and maids even if he was just a little irritated by them. The servant who knew Christian’s personality grabbed him quickly to stop him.

“Yo-your Highness, you need to change your clothes first.”

“Not letting go?” Christian, who couldn’t beat Richard, slapped the innocent servant’s cheek. But the servant didn’t give in and stopped him desperately. No matter how much power Christian has as the Crown Prince, no good would come about from touching Richard, the successor of Rubelin.

In the end, Christian was taken away by his servant. While Princess Michaela, who was standing at a distance, followed him a beat late. “Bro-brother!”

The mealtime became peaceful when the cause of the disturbance disappeared. The bewildered children’s eyes were directed at Ansel, Elisha, and Richard, who were involved in the incident. Richard didn’t care about the gazes and just walked away. Ansel’s voice stopped Elisha as she tried to follow after him.

“Th-thank you.”

“No, it’s not something to thank for.” Elisha received the gratitude with an awkward face and resumed following Richard immediately after picking up two delicious sandwiches on the table.

“Richard.” Elisha called for Richard, but he didn’t stop walking. Fortunately, she was able to catch up quickly. “Thank you for your help.”

“You’re a Rubelin. That’s why I helped.”

“I know. You helped me anyway.” Elisha grinned and handed one of the sandwiches to Richard. “Thank you, husband.”

Richard, who was walking indifferently, stopped. Elisha looked up curiously as Richard turned his gaze toward her. Richard, who became stiff for a while, grabbed the sandwich handed by Elisha and turned around to resume walking.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Elisha tilted her head bewilderedly, not noticing that Richard’s ears had turned red.

*****

After the meal, the Emperor, Crown Prince and Nobles entered the forest to begin hunting. There were quite a few older boys in the group, including Richard and Christian. In the meantime, Elisha was supposed to enjoy the teatime with the noblewomen and other young ladies, but she excused herself to clean the stain caused by grape juice on her dress.

When Elisha and Ann entered the forest, one of the knights that guarded the entrance of the forest accompanied them. After some time, the knight who was following Elisha and Ann stopped walking.

The knight decided not to accompany them further because she might need to take off her dress. Though Elisha was still young, it was impolite to see a lady wearing only a petticoat.

“After turning left, you’ll find a valley if you just walk a little further. There are yellow ribbons tied to the trees along the way, so it’ll be easy for you to find it.”

“Yes.”

“We’re guarding this royal hunting ground, so it’s safe, but if anything comes up, please call me. I’ll be nearby.”

“Thank you.” Elisha and Ann left the knight and went a little further into the forest. As the knight said, there was a valley not far away. Elisha took off her dress. It wasn’t that difficult to take it off because it was a dress for children.

“Ummm, it can’t be washed off completely.” Ann carefully rubbed the hem of the dress in the water, but some stains on the dress remained.

Elisha tried to do it herself but the result was the same. “It was pretty, but there’s nothing to be done.” Elisha felt sorry as she wore the slightly stained dress again.

At that time, they heard a voice not far away.

“… Be alert.”

‘Where did the voice come from?’

Elisha and Ann made eye contact and approached the source of the voice. The sound of the horse was also heard from the side of a small cliff, which was about twice the height of an adult, below the valley.

They saw three men in black. Those men had no royal or noble family crest on their attires.

‘What’s going on? How can they be in the royal hunting ground?’ I felt a sense of foreboding. Elisha laid flat on the ground.

Ann, who was next to her, also did the same.

Fortunately, those men did not seem to sense the presence of the girls. It seemed that the sound from a small waterfall near the cliff clouded their presence. One of the men with a knife scar on one of his eyebrows took the lead and said, “Remember, the target is the successor of Rubelin.”

“……!”

Elisha and Ann blocked the gasping sound from escaping their mouths with their hands.

The men quickly went into the forest and disappeared.

Elisha, who was holding her breath, rose to her feet. ‘Richard’s in danger!’ I don’t know the details, but something dangerous might happen to Richard. She couldn’t prevent it on her own, so she needed to ask for someone’s help quickly. Elisha and Ann rushed out of the forest entrance to where the knight was waiting.

“Sir! Now on the hunting ground………!” Out of breath, Elisha paused as she tried to tell the knight about those suspicious men. ‘What if… what if those suspicious men were sent by the Emperor?’

“Is everything alright?”

Then, she shouldn’t tell the royal knight about it. “Oh, nothing. Let’s go back.” Elisha shook her head and laughed as if nothing happened. They hurried out of the forest with the knight.

‘I need to find the Duke.’

Even if the Duke doesn’t really care about Richard, he was the only one here who would consider Richard’s safety as the top priority. But when they left the forest, the nobles who went hunting did not return yet. Both Albert and Richard were nowhere to be found.

“Milady, what do we do now?” asked Ann as she stamped her feet.

Elisha, who had been thinking for a while, headed toward the Rubelin carriage. There were Rubelin knights that accompanied Albert near it. She recognized some of the knights that she was familiar with and the rest were new faces that she saw for the first time today.

The knights, who were chilling around and playing jokes with each other, asked Elisha as she approached them with a grim look.

“What’s the matter, Milady?”

“Richard is in danger. We need your help.”

“What?”

“Please find Richard in the forest quickly and protect him.”

Elisha’s words made the knights bewildered for a moment. Then they burst into laughter.

“In the royal hunting ground that is guarded by the best knights of the Empire? Did Milady just have a dream?”

“It’s not a dream. I saw it too.”

As the knights giggled and laughed at Elisha, Ann, who was next to her, supported her claim with a small voice. But the knights seemed reluctant to follow Elisha’s orders.

“Stop talking nonsense, just go back and enjoy your teatime…”

Elisha ignored the knights that were trying to send her away and stepped forward with a determined look. “Of course, as you said, my claim can be just a dream. I’ll be glad if that’s the case, but what if my claim is true? What if something happened to the Duke’s successor? Do you think the Duke won’t hold you responsible for that?”

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Elisha’s voice sounded chilly as she uttered those words. Her expression was also cold. The knights flinched at her words.

“You didn’t swear allegiance to me, so there’s no reason to follow my orders. And…”

“….”

“You swore the oath of blood to protect Rubelin with your lives. Keep that oath.”

[t/n: Hello, I’m Anna. I took over the translation for this novel after the previous translator decided to drop it because I like this novel, and I am curious to see how it goes. My translation style is a bit different, so I hope you guys will be okay with it.]